Compulsory education is a national education that school-age children and adolescents receive according to law and must be guaranteed by the state, society, schools and families. Features: mandatory, public, free and basic.

1, state compulsion is the most essential feature of compulsory education. Refers to the compulsory education guaranteed by the state compulsory force in accordance with the law. Compulsory education is not only the right of the educated, but also the obligation of the state. In order to ensure the implementation of compulsory education, there must be a systematic and perfect system of legislation, law enforcement and supervision, relying on the coercive force of national laws to ensure it.

The national compulsory nature of compulsory education also shows that any act that violates the legal provisions of compulsory education and hinders or destroys the implementation of compulsory education should bear legal responsibility according to law and be subject to compulsory punishment or sanctions.

2. Publicity is manifested in the fact that it is a social public utility and belongs to the category of national education. It is an education for all the people in the region and the nation, and should not be monopolized as a tool of a certain class, political party or religious faction. This publicity is manifested in four aspects: first, the separation of education and religion makes school education a secular public utility;

Second, compulsory education is implemented by schools established or approved by the state, which embodies the will of the people; Third, the schools and teachers that implement compulsory education are public and official, and their work is responsible to the country and the people; Fourth, the state effectively supervises and manages the implementation of compulsory education, rather than letting itself drift.

3. Free means that the state exempts all or most of the tuition fees of students receiving compulsory education. Article 10 of China's Compulsory Education Law stipulates that "the state shall exempt students who receive compulsory education from tuition fees", and may appropriately collect miscellaneous fees in accordance with relevant regulations, but the miscellaneous fees collected can only be a small part of the state and society's investment in compulsory education.

Exemption from tuition fees actually exempts most of the students who receive compulsory education, which embodies the characteristics of free compulsory education. The free nature of compulsory education is also manifested in that not only are tuition fees free for those poor students, but the Compulsory Education Law also stipulates that the state establishes grants to help poor students go to school.

4. Fundamentality means that according to the law, all school-age children and adolescents must complete the education for a specified number of years and receive the education of basic knowledge, skills, methods and attitudes. The basic performance of compulsory education is that it is a national education, not a talent education.